Poultry production has changed greatly over the past ten years, becoming increasingly competitive with mergers resulting in fewer poultry companies throughout the world. On the other hand, during this same time period, per capita poultry consumption has continued to increase with companies becoming much more customer focused, marketing an ever-increasing array of fresh and value added products. The primary poultry breeders have also identified the need not only to grow their products faster and more efficiently but to provide more yield of the most valuable parts of the carcass, e.g. breast meat. Whether it is turkey or chicken broilers, the focus is on breast meat yield.
There has been considerable research looking at a variety of ingredients and nutrients which affect breast meat yield in today's high yield poultry. Inevitably, increasing breast meat yield requires a higher nutrient density and thus higher feed costs. Companies must then evaluate the cost-benefit ratio to make appropriate decisions.
In the current climate, where competition is fierce and every cost counts, maximizing the return from every part of the business is crucial. For broiler and turkey producers, increasing breast meat yield is a priority if full advantage is to be taken of its high market value in many countries.
Anti-mycotic materials are materials that inhibit mold, yeast, and fungal growth. One particular anti-mycotic is natamycin, one of the few anti-mycotics that has been approved as a food additive by the Food and Drug Agency of the U.S. government. Natamycin can be obtained commercially from, for example, Gist-Brocades Food Ingredients, Inc. (as Delvocide®) or Cultor Food Science (as Natanex®).
In view of the beneficial aspects of anti-mycotics, poultry feeds are treated with various anti-mycotics, such as natamycin, to prevent or inhibit certain conditions. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,706 sets forth a method for treating animal feed with natamycin to reduce or prevent fungal or mold growth. Similarly, natamycin has been incorporated into animal feed to improve animal feed efficiency (U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,494) and to reduce the incidence of the disease ascites (U.S. Pat. No. 5,985,845).
The prior art does not disclose, however, whether anti-mycotics such as natamycin have an effect on improving yield of specific and valuable parts of the carcass of turkeys and broilers. The present invention is thus directed to the finding that in fact natamycin has been found to have a positive affect on increasing breast meat yield in poultry.